LITERATURE AND SCIENCE OF ENGLAND. 45 



stances attending them forms a prize as tempting to 

 the ambition of science as that which allures one of 

 the eminent natives of this city to dare the utmost 

 rigors of the northern sky. But there is also a 

 healing virtue in the waters, which has drawn in all 

 ages the suffering and infirm to this which the Saxons 

 called emphatically the sick man's town. The natural 

 consequence has been, that here have been more than 

 the usual proportion of the ministers of health, with 

 whom in all ages has lain a large share of the science 

 of the time ; men who, coming from the great seats of 

 learning, by knowing what is known, are best qualified 

 to extend the limits of knowledge. It will not be 

 expected from me to discriminate the peculiar cha- 

 racter or the particular success of each member of 

 this learned profession who has devoted himself to the 

 advancement of his own profession, or of natural 

 science or natural history in the general. But we 

 find early in the seventeenth century the names of 

 Venner, and Jorden, and Peirce, all resident physi- 

 cians of Bath, who, with others, attempted to clear 

 away the mystery which hangs over our heated 

 springs, and by their writings to advance our medical 

 science. There was also Dr. Mayow, who commu- 

 nicated to the world the result of his chemical 

 researches in ' a treatise upon nitrous salts, and Dr. 

 Guidott, a man of various learning, who lived in close 



